FIVE MINUTE FRIDAY: Stop The Juggling Act

On Fridays I drop an idea/thought for our leaders.  Here is this weeks musing…

Continually remind yourself that “church” is your new identity in Christ!  This changes the way we move and function as a community.  It is not just about “going to church”.  The real emphasis needs to be on “being the church”.

 

We all know we live in a fluid culture.  Things move fast and it feels sometimes in life like there is a lot to juggle.  This is not the way we think about the church.  Church is not something you juggle.  Church is something you are.

 

The book Total Church has really helped shape our ecclesiology.

 

In the West we continually face the pressure to make “church” a program.  We have our career, decisions, finances, our social lives, our family, sports, school activities, etc. to juggle and we often throw “church life” into the mix (see diagram below).

There a couple major problems with this.  First, it makes church something you turn off and on.  Second, it hinders mission because we are compartmentalizing our lives.  Life simply becomes a juggling act and Jesus is thrown in.  When we throw Jesus into the mishmash of life we remove him from the centre and this leads to greater problems.

 

The reality is that God’s transforming work of salvation saves you from your sin, but it also calls you to be a people (1 Peter 2:9-10).  Instead of viewing the church as another ball to juggle we see in the scriptures that we are people in community and everything we do in life filters through us “being the church”.

This idea should also change the way we function as small communities or in our context Community Groups.  Yes, gathering together both corporately on Sunday and in small communities is vital.  It still goes deeper.  Even our Community Groups need to caution from simply being a place to go on a Wednesday night in someone’s house.  The deeper call is to be a community on mission 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

 

You are the church!

 

Know your identity and know it well!

 

Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands—remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.  (Ephesians 2:11-22 ESV)

12 Indicators Your Leadership Is Lacking

1. I wait for someone to tell me what to do rather than taking the initiative myself.

2. I spend too much time talking about how things should be different.

3. I blame the context, surrounding, or other people for my current situation.

4. I am more concerned about being cool or accepted than doing the right thing.  

5. I seek consensus rather than casting vision for a preferable future.

6. I am not taking any significant risks.

7. I accept the status quo as the way it’s always been and always will be.

8. I start protecting my reputation instead of opening myself up to opposition.

9.  I procrastinate to avoid making a tough call.

10. I talk to others about the problem rather than taking it to the person responsible.

11. I don’t feel like my butt is on the line for anything significant.

12. I ask for way too many opinions before taking action.

Dave and Jon Fergusson – Exponential (pg. 59)

Exponential Day 1: Matt Chandler

Matt Chandler

“Paul continually preaches the gospel to people who have already heard it.”

Romans 1:13-15

1 Corinthians 15:1-6 – past tense, present tense, future tense

“The gospel should not be assumed.”

Galatians 1:6-9

Ephesians 2:1-10 – the gospel

“The gospel isn’t something that just saves you, it’s something you walk in.”

The Gospel Defined

Colossians 1:13-23

1. The Gospel On The Ground

Colossians 1 Verses 13-14, 21-23

GOD –  MAN – CHRIST – RESPONSE

GOD – creator/perfect

MAN – sinful and wretched

CHRIST – paid the price

RESPONSE – Christ’s work generates a response

 2. The Gospel In The Air

Colossians 1 Verses 15-19

CREATION – FALL – REDEMPTION – CONCEMNATION

CREATION – loving creator created everything good

FALL – fractures shalom, sin enters the world, the ground will war against you

REDEMPTION – Jesus becomes our righteousness, takes on our wickedness

CONSUMMATION – rescued from our sin and used as an agent of reconciliation

“Often the gospel on the ground and the gospel in the air play ‘textual tennis’.  They both might be true.”

“You and loving your city without the gospel is crap.” 

Luke 24:13

Implications Of The Resurrection 

In the cross we are being saved from SIN

In the resurrection we are saved to MISSION

We’ve been saved from SIN to the job of RECONCILIATION

Exponential Day 1: Mark Batterson (Right Now Pre-Conference)

 Mark Batterson – Right Now

Session 1

“God doesn’t do what He does because of us. He does what He does in spite of us.”

Matthew 10:1

“A lot of people want Jesus to follow them.  It should be the other way around.”

“Ministry is not a career.  It’s a calling.”

“I don’t get paid to preach.  I’m called to preach.”

Ezekiel – the priests were appointed to minister to the Lord.  My version would be for the Lord not to the Lord.

“Chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.”

“How are you doing in ministering to the Lord?”

“I’m not worried about church growth.  I’m worried about personal growth.”

“How a person thinks about God is the most important thing about them.” - AW Tozer

“Insecurity is the curse of our pastoral tribe.  Find your identity and security in Christ.” 

“Irrelevance is irreverent.” 

“God took on our language.  Incarnate.”

“Our church is 14 years old and we don’t know what we’re going to be when we grow up.”

“The movie screen – postmodern stained glass”

Writing -100 bits per second.  Motion picture -10 million bits per second.  “A picture is work 10 million words”

“We need to come to terms with who we are and who we are not”

 

Mark Batterson – God Sized Vision

Session 2

“Early on in ministry your influence will have to do with your competency.  When you get older it is all about the people that you bring around you.”

“Early on in ministry I wanted a guest speaker that was good, but not that good.”

2 Things He Does With His Staff 

1. Play and Pray Together

       2. Create A Positive Atmosphere

             Share wins – ministry is hard

Matthew 10

Vs. 9 – goes against everything your mother taught you

“This plan depends on dependency on God.”

You need to have a VISION BEYOND RESOURCES.

 

Financial Principles

“Don’t let your budget define your vision, let your vision define your budget.”

“You don’t need a God sized vision to do something great.  You need a God sized vision to keep you on your needs and dependant on God.”

“Some of us are as innocent as snakes and shrewd as doves.”

“Good leaders need to have a curve ball.”

Shrewd As Snakes

• mix it up, be creative
• free market small groups (give people room to dream)
• redeem technology (digital discipleship)

Innocent As Dove

• You need to ask the question: why are you doing this?
• “Your dream can become an idol.  God can become a means to an end”
• “Blessings need to be turned into praise.  If not it will turn into pride.”

Discomfort

Leadership is scarce because few people are willing to go through the discomfort required to lead. This scarcity makes leadership valuable. If everyone tries to lead all the time, not much happens. It’s discomfort that creates the leverage that makes leadership worthwhile.

In other words, if everyone could do it, they would, and it wouldn’t be be worth much.

It’s uncomfortable to stand up in front of strangers.

It’s uncomfortable to propose an idea that might fail.

It’s uncomfortable to challenge the status quo.

It’s uncomfortable to resist the urge to settle.

When you identify the discomfort, you have found the place where a leader is needed.

If you are not uncomfortable in your work as a leader, it’s almost certain you’re not reaching your potential as a leader.

- Seth Godin (Tribes pg. 55)

Leadership and Mission Weekend

This weekend at RVC we are taking time together to look at Leadership and Mission.  It will be a weekend packed full of leadership training and discussion on how we can continue to see missionaries rise in our culture.

Here is the schedule for the weekend:

 6.30pm Saturday Night Gathering 

- Perry Noble “What Matters”
- Refreshment Break
- Craig Groeshel “IT”

10.30am Sunday Morning Gathering
- Ed Stetzer “Representing Jesus and His Kingdom”

12.30pm Leaders and Volunteers Free Lunch

1-3pm Leader and Volunteers Training Session
- for all kids, youth, and small group leaders, volunteers, board and staff at Royal View
- Plant To Protect
- Leadership process
- Josh Surratt “Leading Healthy Small Groups”

Our Mission

I’ve always felt that it’s important to know where you are going when you invest energy, time and money into something.  In the context of church it’s only fair to be clear in explaining what we are about.  That’s why we are doing a series at Royal View looking at where we are headed and what our mission, vision and core values are.    

Through this we have reshaped our mission statement as a church community.  We feel this better reflects who we are as we see the Gospel take root in our context.

Here’s a little explanation:

Feed Yourself!

 

We had a great weekend this weekend at Royal View.

We talked out of Ephesians 4 about the church being:

1) Called To A Mission and The Gospel (Ephesians 4:1)

2) Modeling Unity Through Community (Ephesians 4:2-12)

3) Growing Up In Maturity (Ephesians 4:13-16)

I love what Paul says to the church in Ephesus:

13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.  Ephesians 4:13-16

The call is to grow up, mature and stop being children!

I gave an example from the life Ava (that tends to happen a lot)…  

I remember when Ava was able to stand up and her fine motor skills were developing enough where she could bring her hand to her mouth.  That was the day I realised that I had to stop doing all the work and let her feed herself!  I didn’t want to be the parent spoon-feeding his child at three years old.

The point is this…

Eventually you have to feed yourself spiritually!  You have to be disciplined in your spiritual life to both grow in community and walk on your own.

So many people in the church depend on somebody else to always feed them (pastors, small group leaders, televangelists…).  

One thing for sure is there are seasons where feeding yourself is messy…  

But isn’t that the point?  Spirituality is messy… Community is messy!

Spaghetti is a pretty crazy meal in our home.  Ava is always stripped down to her diaper.  It’s messy, fun, refreshing.

So.. go ahead.  Grow up…  Feed yourself!

Killer Stuff From Keller

Tim Keller is a hero of mine.  He’s an amazing teacher, writer, leader and pastor.  Everyone should read the book The Reason For God.  Keller pastors a church in Manhattan and has planted about a bazillion churches everywhere. 

He recently did a talk at the Gospel Coalition on the Gospel and Idols.  There is definitely some good stuff here for our series coming up in January called The Journey.

Here was an opening video used to introduce him at the Leadership Summit:

Here’s the talk from the Gospel Coalition:

Don’t let anyone look down on you because you’re young!

I love the fact that Jesus used young people.  A lot of scholars believe that the majority of Jesus 12 disciples were under the age of 19. 

Here are two dudes who are doing incredible things for the kingdom at a young age.  Be inspired!